FRUIT GROWERS' SOCIETY OP WESTERN NEW YORK. 



31-' 



ported tliat the Jiseases of fruit trees should be dis- 

 cussed in tlie following order : 



1st, Fire blight in Pear, Applp, aud Quince trees. 

 2d, Leaf blight in same trees. 3d, Cracking of the 

 fruit. 4tli, Black knot on Pluuis. 5th, Mildew 

 on early Grapes. 



Iiiiccfs. — 1st, Curculio. 2d, Apple borer. 3d, 

 Apple and Tear insects. 4th, Peach borer. 



The di.scufsion to be continued till half past five 

 o'clock, and on Friday from half past eight tUl one. 



The subject of Fire Blight was then discussed, in 

 which Messrs. Allen, of Black Rock ; Thomas, of 

 Macedon ; Townsend and IIoag, of Lockport ; 

 OoppocK and Manly of Buffalo; Baert and 

 HooKKE, of Rochester; and others, participated. 



Mr. Allen did not know much about it. Has 

 an orchard of one thousand pear trees, dwarfs and 

 standards, but has not seen any blight among them 

 till this summer. A number of his trees had been 

 attacked, some killed outright, several of them 

 .being Stevens' Genesee. He fou«d the disease to 

 increase much more rapidly, and was far more dis- 

 astrous, during moist hot weather. Then the at- 

 mosphere is more or less charged ■with electricity ; 

 hence concluded that the disease was the result of 

 electricity. He showed a blighted limb of pear 

 tree, containing sever.al very fair specimens of fruit 

 nearly ripe, and said that the fruit upon this branch 

 about three weeks ago, when attacked with the 

 blight, was not larger than marbles; and he felt 

 confident, from the dry, withered appearance of the 

 branch, looking as if it had been placed in the fire 

 and burnt, that not the least particle of sap had 

 passed the diseased part since that time, and pre- 

 sumed that the fruit received sustenance from the 

 atmosphere only. Thought by stating this fact, it 

 .might prove to be of value. 



Mr. Thomas remarked that his trees had been 

 badly affected. Could not account for the disease, 

 but believed it contagious; and whenever he dis- 

 covered any symptoms of blight, he invariably am- 

 putated the diseased portion, and burnt or buried 

 the parts cut off. Concerning electricity, he liad 

 never heard of it being injurious to plants, and 

 knew evil results arising from it only when it was 

 escaping. He thought that the theory of the sap 

 bursting the vessels, which had been assigned as 

 the cause of the blight, and also of the rust in 

 wheat, was hardly plausible. He had made exam- 

 inations with a most powerful microscope, and 

 from such observations was forced to believe that 

 the rust is occasioned by the growth of fungi. 



Thought that no pressure of sap would burst the 

 vessels. He wondered that they did not liave the 

 blight in many sections heretofore ; the atmosphere 

 nndoubtedly was equally as destructive then as 

 now. He has noticed in hot moist weather, the 

 blight extend, and much more during sudden 

 changes of the atmosphere, particularly from cold 

 to warm. 



Mr. Townsend was sorry to say that he had had 

 considerable experience with the blight, and accord- 

 ing to his belief thought it to be a rupture of the 

 inner vessels of the stalk of the tree, caused by a sur- 

 charge of sap acted upon by a moist atmosphere, and 

 excessive heat, when the plants were making a rapid 

 growth. The disease was the same as rust in wheat. 

 He could hardly consider the disease infectious, as he 

 had thoroughly tested the matter this season, and 

 was fully convinced there was no reason to give any 

 credence to such an opinion. He had a row of pears, 

 Gtoi(t Morceau and Belle Lvcrative, planted alter- 

 nately. A Glout Morceau planted at the end was 

 attacked fiist, in ten days after the next Glout Mor- 

 ceau, and so continued till finally all the Glout Mor- 

 ccau's were killed, while the Belle Liicrathcs were 

 untouched. Had a number of trees attacked on the 

 10th of August last, and Inst ninety Glout Morceau. 

 Adjoining the row of Glout Morceau there were rows 

 of Beurre Diet, Beurre d'Amulis, some Passe Col- 

 mars, and lost none; following there are five rows of 

 Louise Bonne de Jersey, \Wth a few Oswego Beurre, 

 and lost only three Louise Bonne. With the Louise 

 Bonne the blight always attacked the body. Has 

 standard White Doyenne blighted. The disease at- 

 tacked the body of the tree, forming a circle around 

 it about four inches in diameter, while both above 

 and below this point the trunk and branches were 

 apparently uninjured. Blight was greater during hot 

 moist weather, and had noticed at such stages of the 

 atmosphere that rust in wheat exteuded itself con- 

 siderably. His ground is good, and previous to plant- 

 ing was occupied by hoed crops. Soil deep, sandy 

 clay loam, with a sandy clay subsoil. 



Mr. CoppocK has a row of Bartlelt, Louise Bonne 

 de Jersey, Vicar of JVinkJield, White Doyenne, and 

 Glout Morceau; six plants of which are blighted, 

 but the Glout Morceau has escaped. The disease 

 was so active in these cases, that on one day they 

 were perfectly healthy and twenty-four hours after 

 entirely destroyed. 



Mr. Hooker thought the disease contagious, as he 

 bad seen sorts entirely destroyed one after the other. 

 AYhenever the bhght makes its appearance upon his 



